Writing 5

The list circulated the internet for months gaining the popular title Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling. We reposted this list two weeks ago and the response has been phenomenal with thousands of likes, shares, comments and emails.
Aerogramme Writers' StudioThe Art of Video Game Writing. Imagine writing a story where the first thing the “reader” asks when they begin is: what do I do?

The answer might be one or all of these things: explore, survive, observe, solve, form a strategy, make decisions. Game writing is a type of storytelling where the reader is a player. Everything about the game, like the environment, the characters, the rules and the gameplay, can be opportunities to tell the story. This makes game writing extremely collaborative, technical and iterative.
» How Do You Know If Your Writing Is Any Good?
The Blunt Instrument is a monthly advice column for writers.

If you need tough advice for a writing problem, send your question to blunt@electricliterature.com.
Why We Need To Stop Viewing The Arts As Something That Slots In The Spaces Between Real Life. This is an ideas piece by Elizabeth Flux, about the need to stop viewing the arts as disposable.

Five years ago I was looking at the very real possibility of being tethered to a career and a life which looked perpetually grey because I had no real passion for what I was doing. I woke up early to arrive on time to be peppered with questions I would only be able to answer by staying up late. My sleep debt increased, my sense of self became intrinsically tied to what grades I could achieve, and outside of study, the world shrank. This was not because my degree was bad; it was because it was wrong for me as an individual. The years leading up to this point were kind of a black hole. I started writing again, tried my hand at editing, and eventually gained the small amount of confidence I needed to leave behind the certainty of the career I’d been working towards and do what I’d wanted to the whole time: write, edit, and get paid to talk about film and TV.

Photo: Arts Funding Advisor, Probably. Every trick in the book. 10 Things About Being Published (That I Wish Someone Had Told Me)
There are countless blogs on how to get published, but what happens when you finally land that elusive deal?

Today our Prime Writers come clean on what they wish they had known, and offer their tips to any first-time author on the road to publication.
10 Things About Being Published (That I Wish Someone Had Told Me)
» How Do You Know If Your Writing Is Any Good?
The Big 'What If': 5 Alternate History Books Done Right. Over the years, ambitious novelists have applied the great what if to tales of alternate history on a grand scale, teasing out hypothetical versions of reality that illustrate both the elasticity and the limitations of human endeavor.

These conjectural narratives serve as bracing reminders of what was at stake in any particular moment. History is never set or stable as it’s happening; it only seems that way from a future standpoint. Which means that everything we take for granted as we sleepwalk through our present moment is actually terribly precarious, malleable and shapeless, with the repercussions of action or inaction rippling out through the rest of time.
Helpful Tips on Historical Research. Many writers set their work in the past, but only a very few have the luxury of a training in historical research.

On Historical Fiction: How Accurate is Accurate Enough?
Ask a room full of readers their favorite historical novels and you’ll get a beautiful range of answers.

Some look for quiet love stories on the American prairies, some for Gothic tales in sprawling Victorian manors, some for gritty Roman battle epics. Some readers reach for biographical fiction set at glittering European courts, while others like their characters ordinary, anonymous, and wholly make-believe.
Editing, a Look at Process. One of the few truisms about the craft is that everyone’s writing process is different.

Regular writing schedules, writing even when (especially when?)
How to Write a Publishable Memoir: 12 Do’s and Don’ts - Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris. They say we all have a book inside us—our own life story.

The urge to put that story on paper is the most common reason people start writing. Adult education programs and senior centers everywhere offer courses in “writing your own life.” Memoir is the most popular genre at any writers conference. Unfortunately, it’s the hardest to write well—and the least likely to be published.
SLO NightWriters - Critique Group Guidelines and Critique Criteria. A Useful Critique Group Guidelines and Critique Criteria Options We eat, sleep and breathe our stories. We dream about them; they live in our minds with vivid clarity. We feel the emotions, see the imagery, and sense the tension. We laugh and cry in all the right places.
Why You Should Ignore Most Advice from your Critique Group…but They Can Help You Anyway - Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris. I generally advise new writers to join a critique group or participate in writing workshops.

Getting feedback on your own writing and discovering what works—and what doesn’t—in other writers’ WIPs provides an education you can’t get from simply reading craft books, blogs, or listening to lectures. Joining a writing group is one of the easiest ways to learn your craft.
Why You Should Ignore Most Advice from your Critique Group…but They Can Help You Anyway - Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris. 9 Ways Writing Short Stories Can Pay Off for WritersWritersDigest.com. I thought short stories stopped being relevant for professional writers decades ago, when mainstream magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post stopped publishing fiction; I equated short fiction with those finger exercises piano students do before they graduate to real music. If you’re serious about a career in fiction, you write novels … right?

Wrong. Short stories are having a revival in the digital age.
Don't Derail Your Writing Career Before it Starts: 8 Ways New Writers Sabotage Themselves - Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris. We all make mistakes.
Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris - Writing about writing. Mostly.
» How Do You Know If Your Writing Is Any Good?